daybreakacademy | Out of Body, Out of Mind

Entry tags:

Out of Body, Out of Mind

Who: Urtz and those who signed up here!
What: Part 1 of the possession plot
When: Backdated to the last week of March
Where: The secret passageways beneath the school
Warning: Blood, body horror, possession, violence, etc.

[After receiving Héctor's message, Urtz could already feel the control over her body loosening. It took everything she had to make her way down to the hidden passageways of the school. Her magic was almost out of control by this point, more akin to feycraft than the more "refined" version of magic human's had utilized. But she managed to erect several barriers amongst the random and often destructive other effects. That way she wouldn't hurt anyone. Her last act of control was informing those close to her, or whom she had a positive opinion of, the situation at had. Several words were shortened or misspelled, as if she had been mashing the keys desperately, but the message was sent. Her arm lashed out, throwing the device against the wall and causing it to immediately shatter while a visible dent was left.]

That's quite enough.

[A sharp pain tore at the insides of her skull, forcing her down to one knee as she griped her head, as if trying to claw someone out of it.]

You don't need to do thi-!

Oh, but I think I DO.

[At this point she could feel and almost physical force ripping control out of her grasp. She tried her best to fight against it, but she couldn't gain the upper hand. Slowly her fine motor functions were taken over completely by something else. A familiar presence, one that once acted as a warming aura of comfort now burned like a white hot flame. Her consciousness slowly began to fade, her last thoughts occupied by nothing but hope.]

[Tracking "Urtz" isn't exactly an easy task. Of course, this almost makes it difficult for her to escape. The passageways can often feel like a maze and various magical traps have been constructed to throw others off her tail. Many of the exits have been sealed off by Urtz, both to keep everyone but those who can undo the seals out and her in. A fact that frustrates her to no end. Every second she wastes trying to get out of her is a second those pests have to find her and stop her. Seconds turn into minutes, which turn into hours, yet she's no closer to finding a way out of this maze. Every so often she feels Urtz clawing at her soul, trying to force her out, which wastes precious time if nothing else.

Time that eventually runs out. She feels several presences heading towards her position. Running isn't an option, she can tell that easily enough thanks to Urtz's memories, so fighting is her only way out of this. When they do approach, the begin they see before them isn't Urtz. Not any more. her body is roughly the same shape and her soul is still in there, but it's being overpowered by something else. One icy blue eye peaks out from its owner's messy blonde hair. The other eye is just sunken-in blotches with small pools of white floating around inside. Parts of her skin looks to be falling off, revealing the muscle underneath, before retreating back into her flesh to repeat the process over and over again. Despite the nature of Urtz's body, however, a strong amount of magic is radiating off her body even as two souls rage against each other inside.]

And here I thought today couldn't get any worse.

["Urtz" says this with a sneer, her one good eye narrowing as the others continue to float around in her head unfocused.]

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[Some people might consider this a time for subtlety.]

Annabelle Cromwell!

[And then there's Jail, who just kicked the door down.]

What are you doing to your sister?

[There's a notable reaction of calm that comes over "Urtz's" body before it snaps back into attention. Her eyebrow raises at Jail's use of the word "sister" as she frowns.]

Sister? That's a bit of a stretch, don't you think? The only blood we share is quite literally my own, after all. I'm simply taking back what's rightfully mine. I suppose you're going to try and stop me?

Ekkehardt doesn't bother to banter when it's business. Even more when it's intensely personal.

The shadows shift behind Annabelle, one darker than the rest, and a flurry of bandages spring out, aiming to entangle her.

Ekkehardt's years of training and practice are definitely enough to aid him in getting the drop on Annabelle. His presence goes largely undetected until it's almost too late. Her body is still sluggish from fighting for control, so both arms and one of her legs get restrained. She loses her balance and falls to the ground with a satisfying thud. However, she reacts quickly as a surge of magic radiates off of her in anger. Urtz's control over the body gets even weaker as Annabelle's spirit forces her back in order to properly react. It doesn't take a genius to figure out she's going to have to fight Jail and now Ekkehardt. The last thing she needs is to struggle against Urtz on the inside.

In response to her forcing Urtz back, her body starts to look slightly more human. It starts melting pretty quickly, though, which she uses to her advantage by barely slipping her foot through the bandage. Planting one foot on the ground firmly as she stays on her knee, Annabelle increases the strength in her arms using Urtz's abilities before further strengthening them by casting a spell.

"Viribus!"

Using a great deal of force, Annabelle grabs the bandages and attempts to swing Ekkehardt into Jail and knock her over. Even as she does this, the unfocused, puddle-like eyes slowly start to form into familiar white circles in a pool of black, darting around every which way as if to seek out an exit.

[Jail dodges the attempted blow with almost contemptuous ease, circling around to place herself at the enemy's back now that Ekkehardt is in front of her.]

[It seems odd that she doesn't move to strike back- until one notices the trail of pale grey smoke left in her wake, pouring from the small metal sphere in her hand.]

[Smoke bombs and sleeping gas- her old standby. And of the three people currently in this room, only one needs unfiltered air to breathe...]

It takes a few seconds for Annabelle to catch wise to what Jail's doing, but once she does realize what she's planning, Annabelle takes several steps back. Her mind is racing, trying to find a solution to this. Getting rid of her nose and mouth probably won't fix it. Even without visible features like those, Urtz's body could still breathe. It's unlikely these two will try to hurt her too badly, that much is obvious with all of Urtz's memories, but incapacitating her is another story entirely and one with the potential for severe consequences. If anyone could wrench her soul out of her "sister's" body, it's these people. She needs a plan and fast.

...this area is way too open. She can't deal with these two in this space. Especially not if other's join in. She knows Urtz doesn't have many people who she considers "friends", but that doesn't mean an invader like her won't be dealt with by others. But that's a problem for later. Smokebomb and sleeping gas first, then these bandages, then escape. Mist swirls around Annabelle as she casts another spell, conjuring strong winds around her to deflect the gases and hopefully free her arms fully.

Edited 2020-04-05 03:59 (UTC)

Ekkehardt's response to being thrown about is to twist to land on his feet, trusting that Jail will dodge out of the way as he's thrown at her.

The bandages on her arms tear away from the force of the spell, but he uses the bandages on her legs to yank her feet out from under her, hopefully sending her to the floor. More spring out to replace her broken bindings; the ones that are temporarily rendered useless litter the floor around her.

"You're not going anywhere, Miss Annabelle." His voice is mercilessly cold. "Not until you return who you've stolen."

"Who I'VE stolen?"

Even after being pulled down to the ground once more, Annabelle can't help but bark out a mirthless laugh. She raises her hand and cast another spell, magic crackling wildly around her. It's clear there's still some resistance from the current "host", so she's basically doing her best to override it. Even if she ends up wasting more magic than she needs to, she can fix that problem later. She can't fix getting captured.

A magic circle appears at her call, opening a portal in front of her to redirect the bandages. Another portal opens behind Jail; she hopes to restrain at least one of them. That would make this a lot easier, especially if the one restrained is Jail. Ekkehardt is terrifying, but Jailbreak is unpredictable and that might be worse.

"She's the one at fault here! She took this body from me! She couldn't leave well enough alone and let me rest!"

[It's possible that the smart move would have been to dodge the bandages, get further out of Annabelle's range. For a comparatively fragile fighter like Jailbreak, having more distance between herself and the enemy is almost always a good thing.]

[But why limit yourself by doing the smart thing? That's probably what they want you to think.]

[Jail jumps up and runs across the top of the bandages into the portal like an acrobat dashing across a tightrope, trusting in Ekkehardt's skill to be able to tell friend from foe. She doesn't slow down, and comes out the other portal the way she came into the first one:]

[In midair, at top speed.]

[Right in front of Annabelle.]

Wrong again, Annie!

[Think fast or eat shit, Cromwell.]

THIS IS THE EXACT KIND OF THING SHE WANTED TO AVOID. Jail's unpredictability has got to the the world's largest wrench in the gears of her plan. With her legs still bound, there's little she can do except roll back hastily, further tangling her legs in Ekke's bandages. She can't say for certain, but that was probably her plan all along. Or, at least, a part of it. She throws a strengthened punch out quickly, mostly to get Jail to back off at least a little. Her other hand conjures a flame which burns off a portion of the bandages. Her legs a still tied together, but the flame is eating away at the bandages, climbing up them and approaching Ekke fast.

He follows in late. For one, because navigating the maze is no small feat. For two, because he knows he's not going to be that useful in all of this. Not unless he prepares wisely. The last thing he wants is to be a burden in all this and no matter who's here (besides Ekkehardt of course) they're sure to be more capable than him.

The sight startles him. Ekkehardt and Jailbreak each would be a force of nature on their own. Together is something else and he can't help but feel breathless, like the way one does standing before a canyon. And then there's Urtz, who isn't really Urtz at all, whose body shifts and melts and he's reminded of the rot he's endured time and again.

He has a feeling he's not going to get the chance to talk this spirit down. He drops where he is. He's got one chance to help and he won't waste it.

While they're busy, he stays in the shadows, drawing a rune on the floor that he hopes will help. He crushes the ingredients in his palms and spreads them over, then slaps both palms over it all. He doesn't know if this woman or Urtz is the real invader, but it doesn't matter.

His eyes close and he lets his power work, lighting up, only instead of shifting, he channels that energy into the rune. From his place in the dark, light shoots across the floor until it reaches her feet, energy rocketing up to pin her arms down. She might have escaped the bandages, but she's not free yet. Still, the spell won't last for long.

By the time she senses the magic of a newcomer, Héctor's spell is already heading for her. Before she can react, magic is shooting off of the ground, rocketing upwards and pinning her arms down. With three people here, something like this was unavoidable. But dead or not, Annabelle still has (or rather had) the makings of a mage. And the body she's inhabiting is a skilled mage in her own right. After struggling against her bindings, trying to free her arms and finding it impossible, she closes her eyes and chants an incantation. To maintain a spell like this, she can't move, but since she's restrained anyway, there's no harm in it.

A large, ornate magical circle expands out from Urtz's body, enveloping the entirety of the room. Tendrils of black magic radiating miasma tear themselves up from the ground, lunging at whatever they can reach to pull them down to the ground and bind them. Some might recognize the spell as a more advanced version of a spell Professor Valvatorez teaches in his Dark Magic 101 class, but it's not dissimilar to Héctor's spell, either. Hopefully she can bind them long enough to escape and flee before the spell ends.

Ekkehardt ignores the flames - they might be magical and have more of a chance at actually affecting him, but he can take a little singeing (especially after that whole incident with Grimm). Rather than use a spell of his own to attempt to counter Annabelle directly, he burns one of his barrier spells to put a bubble around Héctor, protecting him temporarily from the tendrils.

He leaps into the fray, pulling two of his hidden knives from their hip sheaths. They hum with dissonant tones, glowing crimson as they cleave through the tendrils like a hot knife through butter. Turning them on the mage herself isn't his aim, though; he kneels to cut through the magic circle itself, the spellwork fraying and coming apart where the blades touch it, weakening the spell.

"Jail!" He doesn't shout anything else, trusting she'll know how to handle the situation from here.

The sight of an anti-magic knife actually throws Annabelle for a loop. Urtz didn't know about that and thus Annabelle didn't, either. It makes sense, sure, Ekkehardt was an experienced mage in his own right and he did have...other...responsibilities. Nevertheless, she can't afford to be distracted now. Ekke damaging the circle causes the tendrils to lash out violently and randomly, tossing aside anyone unfortunate enough to have gotten entangled. Several more dive for Ekke to try and minimize the damage to the circle, but it's already too late. The circle crackles and sparks wildly with magically energy. With its integrity damaged, the flow of magic is sent right back to the caster: Annabelle.

She had just managed to free herself from the bindings when the kickback occurded, sending jolts of raw, concentrated magic right through her. The force of the reaction flings her through the air, singeing her body as she crashes into the ceiling hard enough to crack it. But instead of falling back down, her hands, turning to claws, embed themselves into the ceiling. She angles herself just so and releases, kicking off the surface and lunging straight for Jail. Héctor is an unknown in terms of abilities and Ekkehardt is fierce, but Jail's unpredictability and excellent teamwork with Ekkehardt makes her a prime target. She doesn't know if this is all part of her and Ekke's plan to bait her in, but she doesn't care. Desperate times call for desperate measures and unpredictable or not, she's still human.

[Jail's momentum doesn't give her time to stop when Annabelle throws that first punch out, but she can and does twist midair, turning what would be a direct hit into a glancing blow that just grazes the side of her hip. With the magical strength behind it, even that light touch is enough to bruise- but with what she's dealt with over the years, a single bruise isn't enough to even slow her down.]

[She's already back on her feet and out of arm's reach by the time Hector's binding flares, touching back down to earth from her midair flip like it's no more difficult than running up a flight of stairs.]

[As she dodges nimbly back and forth, staying always just out of reach of the dark power grasping for her, her hands are rummaging through her pockets. Nimble fingers find what she's looking for soon enough, expression never changing to let on that she's got another trick up her lack-of-sleeves.]

[When Ekkehardt calls out, she pivots sharply, understanding his cue. Bracing herself, she stands still in the face of Annabelle's lunge until the last second, twisting aside and flinging a fist at her face.]

[It looks like a clumsy punch... except that as her grip tightens, the smoke pours out.]

[Three smoke bombs full of her signature sleeping gas, released all at once inches away from Annabelle's (from Urtz's) face.]

[It doesn't matter if the blow connects or not. What matters is how long Annabelle Cromwell thinks she can hold her breath.]

[He comes in so very shamefully late, making no sound louder than the flap of his wings, banking on not being noticed by Annabelle among all the noise and chaos. He's not the heaviest hitter in the room, though his talons are pretty nasty. What he's best at is distraction, throwing people off balance...

He threads his way through the tendrils, adrenaline pumping, heart racing--the hawk's reflexes are so much faster than his human ones, there's no time to think. Only react. Maybe there is a reason he prefers to fight as a hawk, after over a year of practice flying now. There will be an opening soon, he hopes. Before his wings get tired. It's all about finesse, everything they do to her they do to Urtz, so... the moment he thinks he has a chance, he's going to try to sink those talons into her shoulder.]

There's a look of obvious self-satisfaction as the blow connects. Of course it wasn't enough to leave any serious or last injuries, but she'll take what she can get. Of course when Jail seizes the opportunity to counterattack, there isn't much Annabelle can do but take the punch. Her eyes widen when the gas begins to leak out, holding her breath to try and avoid inhaling it, at least for the moment. Of course, she isn't about to back off now that she has Jail right in front of her. Especially not when she's still got a trick or two of her own.

Both of hands fly out to grip at Jail's mask, attempting to pull it down enough to break the seal and expose Jail to her own gas. Despite the enhanced strength, there's a slow progress to it, as if some kind of interference is going on. Urtz has been shoved back for most of the fight, but she's using whatever control she has left over her body to try and fight Annabelle back. Jail's lungs don't need any more abuse, thanks.

Just at it seems Annabelle is getting the upper hand to yank the mask off enough, Toby comes in with a strike and successfully sinks his talons into her shoulder. There's a sudden jerk as Annabelle cries out in pain. Maybe it's enough to pull the mask, or maybe it isn't. Either way, she opened her mouth and ended up breathing in the gas.

But things don't go quite as planned. Annabelle seems to pass off control as Urtz's face and body seem to shift back to normal before she passes out. However, a ghastly blue aura begins to radiate off her body as it starts to float in the air. Though Urtz's expression makes it clear she's still unconscious, Annabelle has decided to make this a more traditional possession rather than assuming direct control as the body's new host. Losing access to Urtz's magic and the finer points of her changeling anatomy is a downside, alongside making herself more vulnerable, but she's still able to function and beggars can't be choosers here.

"Urtz" raises her arms sloppily, as if being moved by puppet strings. Hector will even be able to get a clear view of the form of Annabelle manipulating Urtz's body. The more magically sensitive will be able to see her, too, but her form keeps fading in and out, whereas Hector will be able to see her no matter what. Channeling her own magic, Annabelle creates a storm cloud to take up a great deal of the ceiling before calling down bolts of lightning to keep them at bay. Hopefully long enough to try and escape with Urtz's body in tow.

[Well, the good news is that mask is definitely not coming off. The bad news is that's because it is, by design, secured well enough that trying to pull it away without undoing the strap is likely to result in Jail's neck breaking long before the mask itself gives.]

[Instead of trying to get away, she ragdolls as Annabelle pulls on the mask, letting herself be awkward deadweight for her to haul around. Maximum annoyance for minimum effort: it's the Jailbreak way.]

[Despite that, it's clear that she's not distracted at all from the goal- the second Annabelle collapses, Jail jerks forward and charges right for the safest spot in the room.]

[Urtz herself.]

[She jumps and aims to hit her in the midsection, a flying tackle. No matter where in the room Annabelle's lightning strikes, she can't afford to risk hitting her own body- borrowed or otherwise.]

Ekkehardt!

[Possession is more in his wheelhouse, at least this type, she's pretty sure. Hopefully if she can haul the body back down to earth, he can do something for the soul.]

[ Annabelle is definitely malevolent, and that makes her much easier to see to his senses than she was previously.

He darts in, lightning sparking off him. It stings, but unlike a human, he has nothing to electrocute; no nerves to numb, no heart to stop or muscles to constrict. It's the work of a moment to trade his two knives for the longer, more ornate one; it sings as he infuses it with power, the runes on the blade burning red, and lunges.

He doesn't aim for Annabelle, but rather for the connection he can see, hovering on the edge of his magical senses, that tie them together. One motion, one clean cut, is all he aims for, and all he needs to force her out.

He puts his will behind it, the sharpness of his focus lending the blade an edge far beyond what any unfocused spell could give it, and wills it to slice that connection in half as he moves. ]

Edited 2020-04-13 05:02 (UTC)

[The connection itself is beyond strange. There's many different little lines tying the two together, but there is one big one. Indeed, with her attention being torn between Ekke lunging forward and Jail having taken (a different kind of) possession over Urtz's body, she needs to act fast. Ultimately she chooses to deal with Jail over Ekke. While she would prefer her body to be in good shape, healing magic is very much an option. Better to get the body back damaged and fix it later than lose her only chance. Despite everything, she calls down lightning down, headed for the body. This leaves Jail with some choices and not a lot of time to decide on them.

Of course, she made a choice of her own. And choices have consequences. Ekkehardt slashes straight through the main connection and Annabelle roars in pain. The smaller connections seem to break off, severing the bond between the two sisters...]

[...or, at least, it really seemed that way.

The portion of Annabelle's soul that resides in Urtz's soul mends the strand and stabilizes the connection. Annabelle, in turn, focuses enough of her magic into herself to maintain a corporal form long enough to lunge at Ekkehardt and grab him by the leg and lift him up. She shakes him in frustration, hoping to get him to loosen his gripe on his knife. And while that does seem unlikely, well...

There is a metallic clatter.]

[...then another. And then, another. At this point Annabelle is completely distracted by this. Both because it's almost like some sick party game and because-]

Good God, how many knives do you have?

[Yeah, that.

Meanwhile, aside from all this silliness, those who happen to be particularly observant or, at the very least, sensitive when it comes to souls, will notice that while Urtz's soul is still in her body, it's not exactly snug in there. Like perhaps she managed to cast an Astral Projection spell to try and aid the others discreetly. But her magic seems pretty weak at the moment.]

[ Getting shaken around like a ragdoll because an angry ghost possessing your adoptive sister is stymied by how many knives you have on you isn't the way he was planning for this potential distraction, but whatever works works. What's one more hit to his dignity at this point, it's been whittled down so much already.

He takes it in stride, keeping a grin on his face as he pulls out another one. At the same time, bandages unweave from his veil to pick up every other knife Annabelle has spilled out onto the floor. He feeds his magic into them, and they begin to glow an ominous red. ]

To your regret, I believe you're about to find out. [ It's a bluff, of sorts. He's not actually going to stab Urtz's body, she needs that. And only some of these knives are charged to be able to cut something incorporeal.

But while he's being a distraction, Jail and Héctor and Tobias can probably take care of things. ]

[Given that he's seen the man be impaled by a sword and not care... she's probably not hurting him much by shaking him. It's fine, though it does distract him too and he's on the ground for a second. Knives knives everywhere!!

He doesn't have the faintest idea on how to stop the cranky ghost, he's feeling curiously sleepy, and he has to be careful not to do much harm. So. Second distraction it is. If he can flap around behind her without her turning, if he can grab her hair without digging talons into her scalp, and then flap with all his might... well, it'll be hard for her to ignore that! Here goes nothing, he's back in the air.]

Aw, shit- [With the split-second kind of reaction that's saved her life more than once, Jail moves.]

[Forward.]

[Instead of dodging away from Urtz in order to avoid the lightning, she tightens her grip and runs, turning the tackle into a desperate sprint, lunging ahead as quickly as she can with Urtz held bodily in her arms, dragged along with her.]

[As swift as a thief can be, a mortal human can't outrun a storm- but almost, almost, because she puts her all into it as the lightning comes down, the stubborn strength and long-honed speed of someone who knows that she lives and dies on whether she can keep from being caught.]

[She doesn't outrun the lightning.]

[But she outruns the strike.]

[When the bolt hits, Jail isn't there. There's not enough time to completely get away, the whole thing happening in an instant, but there's only stray edges to catch at her heels, sparks and trailing current. Yes, she's still too close to avoid getting shocked completely, but it's far, far weaker than actually getting hit by the lightning itself would be. She'll live.]

[Her teeth grit and her muscles seize as the current flows through her, spasms from the shock as she rides out the pain, but she'll live. She's not out of the game yet.]

[And, despite it all, she's still holding on to Urtz.]

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1/3

2/3

3/3 DONE

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